Australasia | Evangelical Times

By Martin Leech

October 2015

Australia

Visiting the Australian Outback

It took a few attempts before I could get the hang of pronouncing ‘Gulargambone’ correctly. The name means ‘place of Galahs’ or ‘watering place of many birds’, in the language of the local indigenous people. Gulargambone is a small community of about 400 people located more than 500km north-west of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. Galahs are grey- and rose-coloured cockatoos found in large numbers in the area. Our journey to Gulargambone began in Sydney with a train ride of nearly seven hours, winding our way up through the Blue Mountains to the west of the city and heading off towards the western plains....

October 2011

Australia

One year in

One year in Mourners cluster on the parched grass outside the tin-roofed chapel filled with grieving family, as I seek gently to bring the gospel of God to them and to thank the Lord for an aboriginal woman’s life in the face of her early death. A year ago we were strangers, but now are counted friends. A number embrace us as family and we care deeply for them. It has been a long journey from our loving church in Hertfordshire to join the aboriginal community of Gilgandra, yet ‘up to this point the Lord has helped us’. We have left two adult children...

By Trevor Leggott

April 2010

Australia

Australian Aboriginal churches

Australian Aboriginal churches Australian Indigenous Ministries (AIM), previously known as the Aborigines Inland Mission, is a conservative evangelical organisation whose foundations go back to 1905. From the beginning, ministry was aimed at establishing Aboriginal Christians to lead and guide their own people. With the benefit of hindsight, AIM recognises that more in the past could have been done with a less paternalistic attitude. Today, AIM is working with local indigenous Christians. Many churches have grown up which, whilst not exclusively Aboriginal, do have strong indigenous social and cultural perspectives. In Queensland and New South Wales (NSW) there are long established such Christian...

By Peter Barnes

February 2007

Australia

Australian Evangelicalism

Snapshots of history have their charms and their dangers. The last forty years or so of Australian evangelicalism have seen hopes rise and fall, as they invariably do. The mid-1960s were nothing short of catastrophic — despite the 1959 Billy Graham crusades. These crusades were considered so successful that many thought Australia came close to revival. Marcus Loane wrote that Billy Graham was ‘God’s man for this century’. The foundations, however, were decidedly weak. For too many churchmen, evangelism had little to do with theological content, and too much to do with the survival of the church as an institution. In the 1960s Sunday...

By Douglas Milne

June 2004

Australia

The gospel of grace in Australia

The centre of Australian evangelical life in Australia is the Anglican diocese of Sydney – centred on Moore College, the publications of Matthias Press, and the national leadership of Archbishop Peter Jensen. Its influence radiates outwards into the whole of Australian Christian life and work. While some aspects of this influence give me cause for concern, the heart of the gospel of God’s saving grace is undoubtedly proclaimed, and that forcefully. Dr Peter Jensen has given stalwart leadership both inside and beyond his own denomination on issues such as homosexuality and women’s ordination. Reclaiming the foundations In the last generation (since 1977 when the...

By Murray Adamthwaite

March 2004

Australia

Developments Down Under

Having recently visited the UK, and been invited to write for ET about the situation facing Christians in Australia, I am most happy to contribute this short report on conditions in the Antipodes. Australia and Britain share many of the problems endemic in Western countries generally, and I am sure the reader will readily identify with much that follows. L et me start with an event which occurred in June 1977 — the merger of the Methodist Church of Australasia, the Presbyterian Church of Australia, and the Congregational Union of Australia to form the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA). The Methodists had in large...

February 2003

New Zealand

Missionary Spotlight-Facts

Area: 104,534 square miles. New Zealand comprises the North and South Islands (separated by the Cook Strait), and numerous smaller islands. Environment: Mountainous, with stunning scenery (Mount Cook 3,764 metres) and large coastal plains. North Island has three active volcanoes. The climate is temperate, with strong local variations. There is a wide variety of wildlife. Population: 4 million, with 75% living on North Island and 80% in the cities. Life expectancy: Men 75 years, women 81 years. Ethnic groups: New Zealand European 73%, Maori 10%, other European 5%, Pacific islander 4%, Asian and others 8%. There are many immigrants. Official languages: English and Maori.Literacy: 99%....

Missionary Spotlight-A powerful work of God

By Geoffery Macpherson

February 2003

New Zealand

Missionary Spotlight-A powerful work of God

‘We did not mean to become Christians’, said Esmaeil as we sat in his lounge. ‘But we were slowly changed as we read the Holy Book and listened to your speaking at the church’. Fatemeh his wife nodded her agreement, while their 6-year-old daughter Salmah looked on. Asylum seekers Another elder and I from the EPC (Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Christchurch) were visiting this gentle Iranian family in their home in response to their request for baptism. They had previously requested baptism, but we had declined, because there were questions about sincerity. Now we asked ourselves: ‘Who are we to withhold baptism from those who profess...

All articles in category Australasia

By Martin Leech

October 2015

Visiting the Australian Outback

October 2011

One year in

By Trevor Leggott

April 2010

Australian Aboriginal churches

By Peter Barnes

February 2007

Australian Evangelicalism

By Douglas Milne

June 2004

The gospel of grace in Australia

By Murray Adamthwaite

March 2004

Developments Down Under

February 2003

Missionary Spotlight-Facts

By Geoffery Macpherson

February 2003

Missionary Spotlight-A powerful work of God

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